Learn me - Aliexpress

I've never used the site, had the impression it was like a low-rent eBay or Amazon, or even Wish.

But someone on the GR Corolla forum bought something recently that I'm curious to try.  At full price it's like $6 but this listing says $.99 as a "Welcome" deal and free shipping.  I mean for a buck if it's garbage it goes in the garbage...

Is it worth even trying?

Car Rain Eyebrow Auto Accessories For TOYOTA GR Yaris Sport Gazoo Racing Corolla

It's where a lot of the crap on Amazon comes from, but without the return policy and at lower prices since there's nobody in the middle. Expect it to take a while to show up, as it comes direct from China using the special postal options they have. 

Also, the de minimus exemption for duties, tariffs etc expires on May 2 (to my understanding) and I would not assume it would arrive quickly enough to beat that. Expect the full tariff amount plus a bunch of extra fees for the processing.

Yeah what Keith says. Better than Wish or Temu, the actual source of a lot of the cheap stuff on Amazon. I use it for a lot of bicycle parts and electronic bits. Return/refund attempts have gone smoothly, only had one scam attempt where a store asked for a "second charge." I simply canceled that order.

I've had good luck overall, no scams. It's a very competitive marketplace, you'll find the same item from many vendors and it's pretty difficult to evaluate any differences or quality. But it's cheap, so it's low risk. 

I made one 'purchase' on Aliexpress, a sump guard for a motorcycle. From China, of course. I paid, it was allegedly shipped. It was a scam, and it worked this way:  they sent a package from a location in the USA. The item was a totally worthless thing; I think it was a fabric Covid face diaper.  So it goes through shipping, arrives at my door, and is marked 'delivered' by the shipper. 

I naturally report it, thinking it is just some sort of mistake. Oh, and it was totally unclear that the package I got was from the place I purchased from...it just seemed like a random delivery. Took me a week to figure that out. Anyway, I complain to Aliexpress and demand a refund for my $90 face covering. They say, "Too bad, package was delivered, so you received the product". Took two attempts with my credit card company to actually get the charge removed.

Aliexpress can eat a bag of donkey ballz. I'll never do business on there again.

In reply to ddavidv :

Reminds me of when my girlfriend ordered some kind of printer for her cellphone, they sent a mylar balloon "as a way of saying thank you for your patience".  Guess what?  She finally tried to get a refund and they said no, it was delivered, see?

I have gone an inexpensive watch buying spree lately, all from Aliexpress and everything has shown up, thoug like Keith said it takes a bit of time.

I feel like for $1 I have nothing to lose.  If they tried to ask for $30 tariff charge I could just ignore the order.

I've ordered a bunch of stuff for my garage CNC machine from it.  As mentioned above, it cuts out the Amazon middle man.   When I got all of my tool holders and other stuff initially, I probably saved $1000 over what I would have spent if I bought the same exact product from Amazon.    Obviously, it's not as convenient as you're really paying Amazon to warehouse it and that does take money and space, so I understand why it was cheaper buying (closer) to the source.  

I have a whole DRO kit to install on my lathe as soon as I get time, also ordered from Ali.  Again, same stuff I would have bought on Amazon.

If I need something I trust, though, I still order that from McMaster or MSC :)

I ordered a fake Lego set in January.  It shipped the 26th.  In early March it arrived in California and made it's way across the country to the east coast and eventually to the UPS hub the next town over from me.  Then somehow it was called back with the explanation "Customer refused.  Returned to sender".  I never even saw the package let alone refused it.  It went back across the country and was delivered to someone in California.  The seller went silent, but thankfully I paid with PayPal so I requested a full refund.  After taking all the 10 day or so "investigation" time PP allowed, the seller responded with the same tracking number I'd already given PP.  I immediately got a refund.  I'm not sure if it was an attempted scam to run out the refund clock or what, but I'm done with Ali, especially with the tariff complications now.

It was $1.07, I used my work email address so no spamming my real one.  Went PayPal.  See what happens.

Aaron_King said:

I have gone an inexpensive watch buying spree lately, all from Aliexpress and everything has shown up, thoug like Keith said it takes a bit of time.

*snrk*

It showed up yesterday.  And an impressive number of emails updating me on the shipping, vs saying no information yet and then poof it's delivered.  Also no requests for extra $, now to see if I like these things this weekend.

I've ordered probably too much stuff over the past few months from aliexpress. I needed a small pushbutton thingy for my Cayenne. Porsche wants $50 for a button, got one for $4 on AliExpress and it works great. Got Porsche crest valve stem caps. Got the little lever/gripper thingies that go on the sides of old Porsche seats so you can fold them forward. $20 for a set. Ordered a few pedals for my guitar for like $10 each. Bought a cheap cymbal, sounds trashy in a good way and cost me $8. New cymbal stand, too. Bought a knockoff steering wheel for my race car. Feels solid, construction was great, fit perfectly. I've only had one bad experience with AliExpress, I ordered some LED headlights for my Cayenne since guys on Porsche forums had good luck with them. They showed up broken and were pretty poor quality. I sent pictures and the guy immediately refunded my money. 

I wouldn't buy pistons off aliexpress but for cheap plastic stuff it's great. I even bought a guitar speaker cab with a celestion vintage 30 speaker in it—it's probably a knock off speaker, but it sounds exactly like a vintage 30 and the quality was fantastic. It's exactly like one sold for $100 more on Amazon, it just doesn't have the logo.  I actually just bought a handful of blank cassette tapes from aliexpress since my new 928 has a tape player and I want to record some old tunes on there so I can rock out while I drive.

Now see how long they actually stick.